If someone who is struggling financially ever tells you that it doesn’t bother them or doesn’t keep them awake at night, you can look them square in the eye and know 90 percent of the time, they’re not telling you the truth. Money may be the root of all evil but not having enough or having problems paying bills is about as scary as it gets, and for the masses make sleeping at night more challenging and filled with its fair share of anxious moments. Issues and problems with money is nothing new. Roughly 50 to 60 percent of the U.S. population has no savings account or money saved at all. Zero, zip, zilch not one red cent. That typically is the root cause of why people struggle so badly with money. In short, they have no budget and then going to bed and sleeping soundly is laughable at best and related to not having a clue where your money goes or what to do when you get it. Everyone has that friend who has minimal at best expenses, makes more than what he pays for yet still complains they have no money. This person has money, and can make it work, but they’re missing the system in place to budget properly and avoid tossing and turning till morning. You’d be surprised once you take the time to put pen to paper and write out your expenses versus income that you actually have money left over and, perhaps most importantly, you start to see where your difference, that profit, is going. You might be spending too much on phone service, the internet or cable or perhaps a daily cup of coffee or dinner out to eat every night after work. Whatever the case may be, that money is lost for now and will continue to be if you don’t start writing down what you’re buying. Beware, however, because the best advertisers in the world will tell you that worrying about money can be solved by, you guessed it, spending money. You have to avoid wasting money, however, when you are having money issues and that includes buying a new wardrobe because you’re upset or taking a vacation or joining a vacation club for thousands of dollars because the nifty sales person says what better way to soothe your nerves than on the beach. What they fail to mention is that it costs money, and you don’t have it. And you can’t justify spending more to alleviate stress because the moment you step off the plane to get home from your trip, the money issues haven’t gone away. To make them disappear, you’ll have to get strict with spending, budget accordingly and start thinking long term when it comes to your finances. And only then will you sleep well and rest comfortably knowing you’re heading in the right direction.